NASA's LADEE spacecraft is headed toward the Moon after launching on a Minataur V rocket Friday night from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The launch, which occurred at 11:27 pm EDT, was widely visible along the US east coast from Maine to the Carolinas. Ben Cooper on took this picture of the rocket flying over the Empire State Building in New York:

"As seen from the Top of Rockefeller Center, LADEE launches to the moon aboard Orbital Sciences Minotaur V rocket," says Cooper. "[It soared] over the blue-and-green Empire State Building, lit for the US Open of tennis." The launch kicks off LADEE's mission to investigate the Moon's atmosphere. Yes, the "airless Moon" has an atmosphere. It is ten thousand billion times thinner than Earth's, but nevertheless there. Apollo astronauts actually saw it with their own eyes. LADEE, short for "Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer," will circle the Moon for 100 days to assay the lunar atmosphere. Instruments onboard the spacecraft will look for signs of humidity, electrified dust, and atoms hopping across the lunar surface. A NASA video about LADEE previews the mission. www.spaceweather.com